IOCC RECEIVES $5.16 MILLION FOR LEBANON DEVELOPMENT
U.S.
Government Grants Target Most War-Ravaged and Marginalized Areas with
Aid for Villages, Schools, Farms, and Small Businesses

Beirut
(IOCC) – International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) has received
two grants from the United States Government to significantly expand
its ongoing work to help Lebanon recover from the war. A grant of $3.46
million has been awarded to IOCC by the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) for the repair and development of 154
public schools in southern Lebanon, the Beqaa valley, and Mount
Lebanon. A $1.7 million extension grant from the U.S. Government’s
Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) will expand IOCC’s current
program to help returnees rebuild their lives in southern Lebanon and
southern Beirut.

IOCC, which has been operational in Lebanon
since 2001 with a school feeding and nutrition program, will be able to
draw on its extensive network of cooperation between public schools,
municipalities and churches to launch its new initiative for Lebanon’s
public schools. IOCC’s two-year USAID-funded program will benefit
90,000 public school students (about 37% of Lebanon’s total public
school population) with repairs to sanitary facilities, new equipment
and furniture, laboratory supplies for science instruction, and new
computer labs with internet access.

“Throughout this crisis,
IOCC’s work has been distinguished for delivering quality aid that
meets the highest humanitarian aid standards,” says His Eminence
Metropolitan PHILIP, the primate of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian
Archdiocese of North America and a member of the Standing Conference of
Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), the organization
that founded IOCC.

IOCC’s school development program will
also improve the learning environment by training students and parents
on the importance of health and nutrition through educational materials
and the creation of parent associations. “Children from low-income
families represent a significant percentage of public school
enrollments in Lebanon,” says IOCC Director of Operations Matthew
Parry. “Especially in the immediate aftermath of an armed conflict,
children require special protection and care, over and above what the
family and extended family can normally provide,” he added.

The
$1.7 million grant will extend IOCC’s current $2 million OFDA-funded
program to help returnees in 64 towns and villages located south of the
Litani River, the area that is closest to the Israeli border and that
suffered the most damage during last July’s war. Assistance will also
be focused on the heavily destroyed areas of southern Beirut. The
original program is assisting an estimated 2,500 vulnerable families
including families of victims, people with disabilities, families
caring for orphans and elderly people living alone. IOCC is also
repairing 23 schools and installing water systems in 30 villages.

The
new OFDA extension grant will allow IOCC to do even more: 2,400
families (about 10,750 individuals) will receive supplies to replant
farms and rebuild farm-related small business; 3,000 highly vulnerable
families will receive heating fuel to help endure the harsh winter;
approximately 90,000 women and children who have suffered from
war-related trauma will receive psycho-social support; and about
100,000 individuals will have safe drinking water.

IOCC has
had an established infrastructure in southern Lebanon since 2001
through a USDA-funded nutrition and feeding program. The area had been
selected by IOCC because it had been the most out of reach of the
central Lebanese government due to Israel’s 20-year occupation. “Back
in 2001, there were only three NGOs working in southern Lebanon and
IOCC was one of them,” says IOCC Regional Director George Antoun. “We
know the people. We know the area. We know the best way of doing
relief.”

IOCC’s emergency efforts in Lebanon began as soon
as the crisis broke out in July. Since then, IOCC has delivered
$100,000 in medicine and medical supplies to St. George Orthodox
Hospital in Beirut and five other medical centers in the South. IOCC
also distributed food and hygiene parcels to over 5,000 displaced
persons taking shelter in the Matn, Alay and Chouf areas, as well as to
families who returned to the village of Marjeyoun shortly after the
August 14 ceasefire.

IOCC was founded in 1992 as the
official humanitarian aid agency of the Standing Conference of
Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA). Since then, it has
implemented over $226 million in relief and development programs in 30
countries around the world. IOCC is a member of Action By Churches
Together (ACT) International.

To help in providing emergency
relief, call IOCC's donation hotline toll-free at 1-877-803-4622, make
a gift on-line at www.iocc.org, or mail a check or money order payable
to “IOCC.” Donors can write "Lebanon Crisis 2006," in the memo line.
Mail to: IOCC, P.O. Box 630225, Baltimore, Md. 21263-0225.